Thomas Steuart Gladstone

Profile & Legacies Summary

1805 - 1882

Claimant or beneficiary

Biography

Thomas Steuart Gladstone was the eldest son of Liverpool merchant and plantation owner Robert Gladstone and Catherine Steuart. His uncle was Sir John Gladstone (q.v.) and first cousin Liberal prime minister William Gladstone (q.v.). Along with his brothers Robert and William he was named trustee and executor of his father's will in 1835 and guardian to his younger siblings. In this capacity he was charged with administering his father's Jamaican properties and splitting his estate equally between all siblings. His father noted that he had already advanced each of the older brothers £4016.

T.S. Gladstone also operated as an international merchant in the Liverpool firm Gladstone and Sergeantson. While his father had operated in both the West Indian and East Indian trade, Thomas expanded commercial interests into South American Guano, Australian farming as well as trade with Asia. In later life he retired to Capenoch house, Dumfriesshire. His younger brother Adam Steuart Gladstone became an East India merchant.

Sources

Will of Robert Gladstone of Liverpool , Lancashire, 15/10//1835, TNA/PROB 11/1852/441.

E-mail from Kevin Brewer referencing archival material held in the State Library of Victoria: Niel Black Papers, MS8996 (13/7/2015).

We are grateful to Kevin Brewer for his assistance with compiling this entry.

Further Information

People of Interest

Jamaican-born widow of a prominent slave-owner; resident in Britain following the death of her husband in 1818. Accused - and acquitted - of the cruel treatment of some enslaved people whom she brought to Britain with her.